Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

80 GENEAliOGIOAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
Within the common fields there are some localities of historical
interest. Stony Cove (Qus-suTc-a-cup?) and Stony Coveriverr
(Qus-su7c-tucTc-gut?) the boundary between the new common field
and Yarmouth. Some of the fields in the vicinity are yet called
Stony Cove lands. About half a mile west of Stony Cove, withia
the ancient bounds of Yarmouth, is a place known as Old Town.
Here the Rev. Mr. Bacbilor and his company attempted, in the
winter of 1637-8, to form the first settlement within the present
town of Barnstable. There is no recorded evidence that this,
name is connected with Mr. Bachilor's settlement ;
yet there is no
reasonable ground for doubting that it is so connected. The
changing of this boundary line explains the apparent error of
Gov. Winthrop in stating that Mr. Bachilor attempted a plantation
in Yarmouth, for it was Yarmouth at that time. The Colony
Court ordered the line between Mattakeese and Mattakeset to be
established. It was afterwards found that both names appertained
to the same place, and that Stony Cove being the boundary
between I-yan-nough and Mas-am-tam-paine, it should also be the
town's. The old writers say Mattakeeset was partly in Barnstable
and partly in Yarmouth. This is accurate, if reference is had
to dates prior to 1642, but not to subsequent time, and therefore
the statements in Davis' edition of Morton's Memorial, and in the
publications of the Massachusetts Historical Society are inaccurate,
because they refer to subsequent events. "William Chase,
always called of Yarmouth, the ancestor of the Chase family of
this County, afterwards owned the Old Town lands, and in Mr.
Lothrop's records, and the town records, he is named as having
been at the settlement, a resident within the bounds of Barnstable
though always an inhabitant of Yarmouth.
I-yan-nough's town. A little distance northwesterly from Old
Town, was a swamp and fresh water pond, called by the Indians
^'Mattakeese swamp." On the borders of that swamp lyannough's
town was situated. It is named by Winslow, and it was
there that he and his companions were so sumptuously entertained
by lyannough. This was the summer residence of the Indians,
though they occasionally resided on the opposite side of the harbor
at Sandy Neck. Here were their planting fields, and being
near the sea shore, where at the last of May and beginning of
June an abundance of the species of the crab known as the horsefoot
and called by them se-quun-nocks, (black crabs) were taken
and used to dress their corn fields, a practice that the English
have continued. In the winter the Indians removed their wigwams
to the forest, because it was less labor to remove the house than
to carry the wood, of which they consumed large quantities. They
usually removed to South Sea in the winter, selecting a sheltered
place in the forest in which to erect their wigwams.
Many years ago the salt water broke into Mattakeese swamp,